(http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p94/rhubarbthrasher/matt.jpg)
Oh! Don't go there. The little darlings are getting out of hand even in this quiet backwater. It's got to the stage that I am thinking I will not go out unless I am tooled up. I was 'ratpacked' by a bunch of them about 5 years ago when they were kicking hell out of my fence. Luckily I floored most of them before I went down.
I don't knock the exam results. Good luck to all those who have passed they deserve praise.
As for all the other scumbags who act as if life is cheap, their parents should have been sterilised, as we say around here ' Sh#t breeds sh#ttier sh#t.
Just look at this last week.
One man murdered because he told them off for throwing rubbish in his car.
Another killed when he tried to stop them damaging his property.
And Gerry shot on the M40, he was a really nice guy.
And that was just the ones that reached the news.
My lad is going in for his As results today..
::)
Oh no they aren't.
from one who didn't sleep last night and was up at 6 (just after daughter) to watch on-line results crash!
3 hours later , huge relief. I must stop wellin' up! (4 A's)
If I was a Youth of Today waiting for my A level results, I would be extremely peed off to read in all the papers how they were easy or dumbed down. You can only do what you're expected to do. Kids are no more stupid or clever than the generations before
I'm sitting here chewing my nails because my daughter was flying back from Amsterdam this morning and going straight to school for her results- should hear any time now.
Just heard- she got 3 A's and passed the psychology extension paper! Sorry to brag, but we're so proud of her :D
I have very mixed views on the exam scenarios of today but ..... a very well done to lads and lasses up and down the country who've done so well :D Now go have some fun before another lot of hard work starts!! ;D
Not telling what mine got, but she isn't phased and I am crying.......and not from joy! :'( :'( The big mistake occurred when the college she wanted to go to, to do a foundation art course told her that it didn't matter what her grades were, they would take her anyway!! So basically she gave up! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
Congratulations to all that passed my daughter did better then she expected but she did do badly last year so hopefully it was the kick she needed
Our Phil got th straight A's in all 4 but is moping because one component was a B... !!!!!!!!!!
::)
We've gpt some clever clogg offspring here - must be all the good fresh food. Well done to them all. :)
I blame the breast feeding myself, not that I can do it!
;D
Well done to Phil and all the others! What are they doing next? Our Becky's going to Sheffield uni to do psychology.
Every year we see these repeated claims that exams have been 'dumbed down', but it's not true. If it was, results would improve year on year, across the board. They don't; there's been a vast improvement in results from private schools, and little or none in state schools. Some of the improvement is due, not to exam questions becoming easier, but to exams being organised in a way that makes it easier to targed areas of weakness, and push students to keep trying until they get that section up to the required mark. But my theory is that the difference is largely down to class sizes.
In a state school, kids have spent their school career in classes of 25-30, occasionally even more (I once had a class of 34). So they get very little individual attention; it's impossible when you get 2 minutes per lesson per pupil. In a private school classes are much smaller, so the teacher gets a chance to work with the individual, and help them to perform at their best. By the time they've done their GCSE's, they've had years of it, and they're often streets ahead.
If Gordon Brown is serious about doing something for state schools, let him put his money where his mouth is, and give them funding for more teachers. That's the one thing that will do it.
congratulations to all of them whatever their results
my kids all got between 6 and 8 a-levels each...normal kids at state school with us squarely behind them, not pushing but encouraging them to do their best, no matter what it was
one has always been and is, a computer whizz, one is a nurse and the other is a chef , he took maths at uni and got a sickener of it..he's much happier doing his cooking
whatever they all decide to do, we wish them good luck ;D
It doesn't matter whether or not they're getting easier - as the only time you're really judged on them is when getting into uni or possibly in the first few years of a career. After that it's your degree or your experience that counts.
One big problem is the pressure on teenagers to do well, only for them to be told that they weren't that hard anyway (and even worse for those who fail at something that's meant to be easy - must be really thick!). I still remember when I got my results (B,C,D), my father saying, "oh, poor you". Well, it was all I needed to get to uni to do Physics (which strangely was what I wanted to do!), but this comment really upset me at the time.
We kick our kids, we kick their teachers, it's never quite good enough etc etc.. And then we wonder why the yoof of today run amock. Why can't we say well done now & again - to kids & their teacher.
(By "we", I mean society - media etc, as I'm sure we're all better than that!).
It's probably the most unhelpful debate that comes around every year, and to me is just lazy drivelling journalism. Maybe some of the editors feel unsecure about people who get better results than they did?!?!
I know my A levels were the hardest thing I ever did, much harder than my degree. Having taught languages to A level I know that they have NOT got easier, except perhaps in that the course work means there's not so much pressure at exam time in a lot of subjects, but that doesn't suit all kids either.
Wants to go to Uni to do Chemistry! Why????
;D
Well, he'll be in demand, saddad, not many taking chemistry these days- I'd also ask "Why?" though- it was absolutely my worst subject at school- managed to drop it before O level!
I teach Humanities subjects... he has gone over to the "dark side"...
:-\
I'd agree with Caroline; A-levels were the hardest exams I ever did. In those days though, the only thing you had at university was the exam; no coursework or anything like that. They have to work harder these days.
Bristol ,Archaeology
And she is having 'words' with the Telegraph.
Ooh, sounds exciting, mr. By the way, was it just her school that had the results online, or could I have saved myself the stress by findinf Becky's before she got them?
I would say that in Scotland the exams have got easier in one sense but haven't in another. The prose (translation from English) doesn't exist any more and the translation from foreign language to English is very short. The prose was always the hardest part of the paper. On the other hand today's learners are asked to write under considerable pressure of time in the foreign language. They are also expected to give a talk and engage in a discussion which is all recorded. Speaking was hardly assessed at all in my day, yet it is probably the most useful skill for most learners to have. There is also continuous assessment which means they are under pressure all the time and you have to multiply the assessments by by or 6 for all the subjects they do. (Scottish pupils tend to do 5 Highers for university entrance).
I think what I am saying is that we are not testing the same things but hopefully are developing more useful and appropriate skills for today.
Oh and yes! Well done to all the young people who have worked so hard to achieve excellent results.
sorry, folks, that was the o level results, need a doolally little man
they all got 2 to 3 a levels ;D
Caroline, I do not know if it was only her school ,but I wouldn't have thougt so.
She will be self-catering , so it's how to cook curries today.They have all done very well. As young
Mr Grace would say.
I teach Biology at a 6th form college. The exam's are easier in the sense that some of the content has been removed. It is now standard for students to take 4 AS levels. Since students are studying more subjects then some of the content has to go in order for the syllabus to fit into a teaching year. It is not neccessarily the hard stuff that has been removed though. Results are 'fixed' in the sense that with the modular system, students can 'decline' a grade and save the good modular results for a period in the future, should they choose to resit. This means that many of the true 'fails' just fall out of the system. They do not resit but the system just doesn't list them, rather than list a fail. This increases the pass grade! In addition students can 'down-grade' to an AS level if they pass the earlier units, but do no achieve on the A2 units. So many students achieve an AS grade E, rather than a fail in the A level exam. If you look at individual unit grades or the AS grades over the whole country that is a far better review of the actual achievement. I do believe the pass rate in AS Biology is about 65-70%. The number of A grades has improved, but this is as the students get the chance to resit individual modules. It's all media hype. I can tell you that A level Biology is not easy!
Very well explained Sparkly... I teach as well... but your rational explanation doesn't make good tabloid headlines!
;D
Whether the exams are getting easier or not, the students can only answer the questions put in front of them so it's not really fair to criticise them on the grounds that they might have easier exams.
But, IMHO, it is fair to criticise a system that seems more intent on teaching them how to pass exams than actually teaching them about the subjects that they are doing. My better half teaches infants/juniors and she is becoming disheartened by the amount of time she has to put toward exam prep rather than real teaching.
At the other end of the educational spectrum, I'm meant to be teaching a first year uni module next year. This was previously a module that introduced debate, reseach and critical thinking techniques, and I was looking forward to it. But now it has had to change to a module that attempts to teach the new students how to write essays ::)